I hiked the ridges from Long Hollow Pass. Lots of ups and downs and I tagged P6734 and P6970 along the way. I had to chase a herd of sheep off the summit of Alvord. I was going to continue on to P6698 and P7011, but I was tired and it was starting to rain. Nice hike.

I came out to the Steens looking for a snowy summit with reasonable accessibility from the road. I knew the Steens Loop road would be closed so I ruled that out, and I have no idea how to get to Beatys Butte without traveling to the blasted reaches of Oregon (aka Mordor, uh I mean Lakeview), so I settled on Alvord Peak which I had eyed in 2006 on a roadtrip to Fields. Although I didnt get a chance to break out my snowshoes, I did enjoy the quietest hike I have experienced yet. Absolute isolation, quite an experience. Saw lots of deer, bighorns, eagles, jackrabbits, and coyotes. Pretty cool little ridgewalk.

"Got tight last night on absinthe and did knife tricks. Great success shooting the knife into the piano. The woodworms are so bad and eat hell out of all furniture that you can always claim the woodworms did it."
--Ernest Hemingway